Video: Government shutdown as winter storm hits

posted at 9:21 am on February 13, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

And it’s not just the federal government that’s shutting down in Washington DC, but the entire city — and for good reason. The infrastructure in the Beltway can barely handle a small snowfall, as the city rarely sees any more than that at one time, but even a metropolitan area like Minneapolis/St. Paul would struggle with eight inches overnight:

As Bloomberg reports, the heavy snowfall extends up and down the eastern US, and power failures have been widespread. If you’re thinking about traveling to the East Coast today, get used to disappointment:

A winter storm that piled as much as 12 inches (30 centimeters) of snow and ice across the U.S. South spread into the Northeast with gusty winds, shutting government offices inWashington and blanketing streets for start of the morning commute.

More than half a million homes and businesses were without power as of 7 a.m., while more than 4,000 flights were canceled around the U.S. Twelve deaths in the South were blamed onthe storm, the Associated Press said. …

The National Weather Service predicted 8 to 12 inches for New York along with wind gusts of 35 miles (56 kilometers) per hour by the time the system moves out tomorrow, while Washington may get 6 to 10 and parts of New Jersey 10 to 14. An ice storm warning was posted for central Georgia as winter weather alerts stretched north to Maine.

Reuters puts the upper projection limit for snowfall at 18 inches, and reports that 13 deaths have been attributed to the storm:

A deadly and intensifying winter storm packing heavy snow, sleet and rain pelted a huge swath of the U.S. East Coast on Thursday, grounding flights and shuttering schools and government offices.

Winter storm warnings and advisories were in place from Georgia up to Maine, and the powerful system could blanket the Atlantic Coast over the next two days with 12 to 18 inches (30 to 46 cms) of snow, said Jared Guyer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. …

About 4,470 domestic and international flights were canceled and another roughly 290 were delayed early on Thursday morning, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.com.

The storm system, which has dumped heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain from eastern Texas to the Carolinas since Tuesday, was blamed for at least 13 deaths in the Southern region and for knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers.

The storm is shifting north, CNN says this morning:

By the weekend, this should subside, but it’s just another episode in a tough winter season. I’ve seen some griping in social media about being a bit wimpy and ordering closures “before the first snowflake falls,” but as some in the South learned the last time, it’s better to get ahead of the storm and keep people off the roads than to wait until it’s too late. Chick-Fil-A can’t come to everyone’s rescue.

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I’ve got 18 inches in my backyard. It’s been that way for a month. It’s already Toledo’s 3rd snowiest winter. Plus I’ve had my kitchen pipes freeze twice this year. In ten years they’ve only frozen one other time.

I’ve seen some griping in social media about being a bit wimpy and ordering closures “before the first snowflake falls,” but as some in the South learned the last time, it’s better to get ahead of the storm and keep people off the roads than to wait until it’s too late.

Eighteen inches isn’t two inches. I was gobsmacked by the total paralysis in Georgia those flurries caused. In Michigan they don’t even think about cancelling school until they know there will be six inches or more on the ground.

I’ve got 18 inches in my backyard. It’s been that way for a month. It’s already Toledo’s 3rd snowiest winter. Plus I’ve had my kitchen pipes freeze twice this year. In ten years they’ve only frozen one other time.

It’s called weather, and it was supposed to be warmer according to ManBearPig.

Reduced snowfall and less snow cover on the ground could diminish the beneficial insulating effects of snow for vegetation and wildlife, while also affecting water supplies, transportation, cultural practices, travel, and recreation for millions of people

Damn Republican snowstorm. Shutting down the government. Hope we can all survive until it gets going again. As Digby O’Dell the Friendly Undertaker used to say on the old radio show “Life of Riley”——I’ll be shoveling off!

Say…… Don’t those things run on fossil fuel? Surely Mother Gaia would have created solar powered snowmobiles!

Happy Nomad on February 13, 2014 at 9:52 AM

They’re wind-powered, you homophobe. As you move forward the breeze created turns the windmill mounted on the hood which then powers the track and makes you move forward; designed by some liberal outfit in Cali, I believe.

As a former Vermonter, I can relate to getting up early to clear the driveway before heading out – but not anymore! Gonna be in the mid-80′s this weekend, here in Arizona. Pool party anyone?

Hill60 on February 13, 2014 at 9:41 AM

Here in West Texas, we’ve been bouncing back and forth between 10 degree lows and 80 degree highs every couple of days … except for this week, when we’re going from the mid-teens to the low 90s in a span of about 72 hours. Great for tissue sales due to head colds, but I preferred a couple of years ago, when it just stayed below 20 degrees for about a week straight in early February, and then winter decided to call it a season.

We were just lucky on Monday and Tuesday that the ice/freezing rain portion of the current winter storm really didn’t get going until it got to North Central Texas, before taking out the Southeastern states on Wednesday.

Socialist Rag People’s World: We Need “Cyborg Socialism” To Save Planet From Global Warming…
Toward cyborg socialism – People’s WorldAnd so I cringe a bit at the term ecosocialism – it’s too earth-toned. What we need is a cyborg socialism that points not to the primacy of ecology, but to the integration of natural and social, organic and industrial, ecological and technological; that recognizes human transformations of the natural world without simply asserting domination over it.http://weaselzippers.us/173496-socialist-rag-peoples-world-we-need-cyborg-socialism-to-save-planet-from-global-wamring/

Oh, and before you start crowing on about the “less snow” USA Today article, take a deep breath and think about what the article is actually saying (not what you think you know what it’s saying). LONG TERM TRENDS PEOPLE!!

Global warming ‘pause’ may last for 20 more years and Arctic sea ice has already started to recover
The 17-year pause in global warming is likely to last into the 2030s and the Arctic sea ice has already started to recover, according to new research.

A paper in the peer-reviewed journal Climate Dynamics – by Professor Judith Curry of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Dr Marcia Wyatt – amounts to a stunning challenge to climate science orthodoxy.

How do you explain the wilder-than-now weather of the 1930s? Or, for that matter, Greenland a millennium ago?

There’s always been climate change, it’s just that 99 percent of it is due to solar and volcanic activity, and the EPA can’t take Sol or Krakatoa to federal court for their environmental transgressions.

Climate change doesn’t eradicate snow; it simply makes weather more extreme at all ends of the spectrum. And a warmer climate overall means more moisture in the air. In winter that means more snow. It’s called science. Look it up.

lostmotherland on February 13, 2014 at 10:00 AM

Agreed.

I looked up “science” and found a little blurb which stated that my home state was once covered by a glacier which then receded and left behind some 20,000 lakes.

Of course that glacier receded 10,000 years ago, more than likely because the Cro-Magnons couldn’t understand that their SUV emissions were the main cause.

You think Al Gore had an ancient ancestor who ran around screeching about global warming while living the high life he would deny to others?

Went to bed at midnight last night. It had been snowing for a couple of hours and we had about an inch or maybe two of new snow on the ground. (Still had 3 or 4 inches of frozen snow from the last couple of storms. I can’t remember the last time it was above freezing here.) By 8am, we’ve got about 14 inches or so. They were saying it was going to be heavy, wet snow, but this is really powdery with some drifting. I’m in Westminster, Maryland – about 30 miles northwest of Baltimore.

It’s called weather, and it was supposed to be warmer according to ManBearPig.

Fallon on February 13, 2014 at 9:40 AM

All we in Dallas got out of this storm was a little light snow and ice. I asked my 12yo daughter if she knew who Al Gore is. She said no. I told her that back in the 90′s, he predicted kids her age would not know what snow looked like. We both had a big laugh about that.

Oh, and before you start crowing on about the “less snow” USA Today article, take a deep breath and think about what the article is actually saying (not what you think you know what it’s saying). LONG TERM TRENDS PEOPLE!!

lostmotherland on February 13, 2014 at 10:02 AM

Again, complete agreement.

At the first Earth Day celebration, in 1969, environmentalist Nigel Calder warned, “The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind.”

The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age. — Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

Robert Hansen said D.C. would be underwater in 20 years, he proclaimed that in 1988.

You’re all a bit dense, aren’t you? Are you really so dumb that you think ”I looked outside, and it was snowing, therefore, there is no climate change”? Climate change doesn’t eradicate snow; it simply makes weather more extreme at all ends of the spectrum. And a warmer climate overall means more moisture in the air. In winter that means more snow. It’s called science. Look it up.

lostmotherland on February 13, 2014 at 10:00 AM

You know what I like about you lostbrainmatter? I just post the following and we all laugh and dismiss you as a result:

As a former Vermonter, I can relate to getting up early to clear the driveway before heading out – but not anymore! Gonna be in the mid-80′s this weekend, here in Arizona. Pool party anyone?

Hill60

Here in the White Mountains of AZ we have had hardly any snow this winter. I haven’t worn my snow suit or snow boots or even used the snow shovel. Unfortunately, that means we’re gonna probably have a bad fire season this year. We went through the Rodeo-Chedeski fire and evacuation in ’02 and do not want to do that again. Enjoy your mid-80s, Hill60 (you’re in the Valley, right?).

You’re all a bit dense, aren’t you? Are you really so dumb that you think ”I looked outside, and it was snowing, therefore, there is no climate change”? Climate change doesn’t eradicate snow; it simply makes weather more extreme at all ends of the spectrum. And a warmer climate overall means more moisture in the air. In winter that means more snow. It’s called science. Look it up.

lostmotherland on February 13, 2014 at 10:00 AM

Okay. You had me going for a second. That is an outstanding lampoon of a wild-eyed AGW acolyte.

Oh, and before you start crowing on about the “less snow” USA Today article, take a deep breath and think about what the article is actually saying (not what you think you know what it’s saying). LONG TERM TRENDS PEOPLE!!

You’re all a bit dense, aren’t you? Are you really so dumb that you think ”I looked outside, and it was snowing, therefore, there is no climate change”? Climate change doesn’t eradicate snow; it simply makes weather more extreme at all ends of the spectrum. And a warmer climate overall means more moisture in the air. In winter that means more snow. It’s called science. Look it up.

lostmotherland on February 13, 2014 at 10:00 AM

How many carbon credits do you own?

And why are you using a device made from fossil fuels and likely powered by electricity created by burning a carbon sourced material.

And why don’t you live up to the standards you wish to impose on others?

Funny how when federal employees get a snow day, nobody in the media is screaming about how the government shutdown is going to affect so, so many people. The only time a government shutdown matters to the media and to the power elite in Washington is when they can blame it on conservatives.

Freakish weather that shuts down the federal government, that paralyzed the redneck heartland, but nooooooo … there’s no climate change.

Spin, monkeys, spin.

GodlessCommie on February 13, 2014 at 9:31 AM

Yep, you’re right of course. It’s never been like this before. In all my years this is absolutely the mostest, worstest, snowiest, coldest, most differentenst winter I’ve ever seen. Well except the one in 1948/49 and the one in 1951 then there was that one in 1962 and of course that really bad one in 1965, now that was a bad one that one. The one in 1967 wasn’t too bad for me I spent that one in the South China sea. It only got cold when we traveled North up close to Haiphong, chilly up there well except for where all them bombs was falling then in 1968 it got really really cold in Northern California and a lot worse in the heartland. The one in 1976 was really cold along the Eastern seaboard too, everything froze up and then again in 1978 feet of snow then not inches. Got a lot of snow and freezing in 1983 too East Coast socked in and shut down for several days. Of course 1986 was really bad too whole East Coast shut down for about a week, really bad that one. But you’re right other than those few this one is the BADDEST ever. Never seen anything like it myself. Gotta be global whatchamacallit or something, you know something like WINTER.

I’ve got maybe 6-8 inches here in central VA, but we have excellent snow removal services…the main roads should be cleared by mid afternoon. Not totally clear, but should be drivable if you had to get out. They started plowing about 8 last night.

You’re all a bit dense, aren’t you? Are you really so dumb that you think ”I looked outside, and it was snowing, therefore, there is no climate change”? Climate change doesn’t eradicate snow; it simply makes weather more extreme at all ends of the spectrum. And a warmer climate overall means more moisture in the air. In winter that means more snow. It’s called science. Look it up.

lostmotherland on February 13, 2014 at 10:00 AM

So…what happened to GLOBAL WARMING?

We’re all supposed to be living in the desert right now – except, of course for the costal cities that are underwater (because the polar ice caps have melted).

All of you azzclowns have stopped yammering about AGW and gone to “climate change”, as though the climate isn’t constantly changing. You guys are going to have to figure out a new scam. AGW has crashed and burned – and nobody’s buying plain old “climate change.

Maybe you should try something a bit simpler, like “Asian Hissing Roaches” or “Killer Bee Invasions”.

You’re all a bit dense, aren’t you? Are you really so dumb that you think ”I looked outside, and it was snowing, therefore, there is no climate change”? Climate change doesn’t eradicate snow; it simply makes weather more extreme at all ends of the spectrum. And a warmer climate overall means more moisture in the air. In winter that means more snow. It’s called science. Look it up.

lostmotherland on February 13, 2014 at 10:00 AM

Hey lost … did you ever hear of the Donner Party? No, it wasn’t a Superbowl related event … it was the winter of 1846 – 47. Do you know when and where the coldest temperature ever recorded in the lower 48 was? Try 1954, in Roger’s Pass, Montana. Extreme weather has been with us always, and always will be. Unfortunately, so will fools like you …

You’re all a bit dense, aren’t you? Are you really so dumb that you think ”I looked outside, and it was snowing, therefore, there is no climate change”? Climate change doesn’t eradicate snow; it simply makes weather more extreme at all ends of the spectrum. And a warmer climate overall means more moisture in the air. In winter that means more snow. It’s called science. Look it up.

toure on February 13, 2014 at 10:00 AM

“Science” also at one time told us that the Earth was the center of the solar system, and that the Earth was flat.